Colloquial Confessions
by xxfatal
Summary: MinatoxKushina. He smiles a lot. He's not sure if she notices.


**A/N: **Chapter 367 spoiler warnings. Minato's got one of the cheesiest grins on the planet. You know you love it.

**Disclaimer:** Almost forgot _Naruto_ wasn't mine, so infatuated with this pairing as I was. Oh, my.

**Colloquial Confessions**

"I-I've really like you, since the beginning, Minato!" confessed the tremulous girl. Minato seemed taken aback for a moment. "Would you . . . go out with me?" she requested hesitantly, finally meeting his eyes with her own.

Minato's features softened. "Ah . . . I'm sorry, Chiaki," he responded apologetically. "I can't accept that offer."

She blinked rapidly, trying to understand without succumbing to tears of embarrassment. "Y-you're not already taken, are you?" she questioned anxiously, feeling humiliation creep into the singe of red on her face.

"No, no, it's nothing like that," Minato assured her with a diffident attempt at a smile. "I'm just not interested right now."

"O-oh," she breathed, eyes downcast.

"Thank you, though, Chiaki."

"Ahh . . . umm, it was . . . it's nothing. Thank you, Minato," she stammered. "I ought to get going now." She bowed clumsily and retreated down the street, a dazed but troubled expression on her face.

Minato stood there uneasily. He wondered how many more girls he would have to turn down. Chiaki certainly wasn't the first one, and it always made him feel like a jerk everytime he did it.

"Ouch, Minato. That looked pretty harsh," came a brazen voice from behind him. Minato caught a figure emerging from the corner of the street, previously obstructed by the fence. He could never forget _that_ red hair. "What was that all about?" she remarked glibly.

Minato smiled. "Hi, Kushina." She frowned, arms crossed, because he always did seem to avoid her questions. "I'm surprised that you stood there quietly so long. You're usually so loud," he replied, instead. Kushina's face puckered, and she released an indignant scoff from where she was.

"Say, Minato, what were talking to that girl about just now? She didn't look too happy about it," Kushina pursued after a brief beat of silence.

Minato lowered his gaze uncomfortably. Kushina had never witnessed him turn down a date before. "Oh, um, it was . . ." Minato's characteristically serene voice died off. He decided to forego the futile "nothing." Lies and half-truths never did fare well with the fiery Uzumaki. "Someone asked me out . . . and I declined, that's all," he concluded softly.

_'He's really sorry, isn't he?'_ Kushina guessed, cocking her head sympathetically. Instead of voicing her sentiments, Kushina sighed. "I'm surprised at you, Minato. You seem like the type of guy that'd accept a date from anyone, but here you are, turning down a poor girl's offer."

_'That's because I've already set my sights on someone.' _He smiled weakly in response, not knowing what to say to that.

"Makes a girl wonder why, you know." Kushina approached him, winking a little mischievously. "You don't happen to," her eyes sparkled with restrained laughter, "roll _that way_, do you?"

He expression went dead-flat. "No, Kushina, I don't," he answered honestly.

"Oh." She appeared a bit disappointed her conjecture didn't prove correct. "Well, I'm still curious," she repeated, but casually shrugged off the discussion, finding the topic didn't really interest her all that much. Kushina rummaged through her pockets for a moment. Her countenance immediately lit up.

"Hey, let's go to Ichiraku's! I suckered Ayame into giving me a coupon, buy one, get one free!" She turned back to grin at Minato candidly. "And I hear they're coming out with some specialty ramen thing. It's going to be awesome!"

Kushina snickered to herself happily, then swiftly turned on her heel and sauntered off. Her good cheer was both palpable and infectious, Minato thought.

It wasn't until Kushina turned the corner that she realized Namikaze wasn't following. With an agitated scowl, she poked her head around, glaring pointedly at him. "Hey! What are you doing, just standing there?" she snapped irritably.

Mild astonishment flitted over Minato's face. "Huh? Oh, I didn't know you wanted me to come along . . ." Minato replied, scratching his head sheepishly. Kushina always seemed to make him feel childish and immature.

"Of course!" she protested loudly. "Didn't you hear the 'buy one, get one _free_' part? Sheesh! C'mon, Minato!"

"Oh, okay!" Minato didn't hesitate to go after the wayward Uzumaki. He let a lucky grin spread over his face as he feel into stride with her, and wondered if this counted as a first date.

_fin._

******A/N:** Experimental piece. (It kind of sucks that their names aren't on ff(dot)net's list yet.) Thanks for reading. Feedback would be appreciated.


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